A STUDY OF SOIL WATER-HOLDING PROPERTIES AS AFFECTED BY TPH
CONTAMINATION
1
Suzette R. Burckhard, 2Dan Pirkl, 2Vernon R. Schaefer, 3Peter Kulakow, and 4Blase
Leven
1,2
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Box 2219, South Dakota State
University, Brookings, SD 57007; 1Phone: (605) 688-5316, 1E-mail:
suzette_burckhard@sdstate.edu; 3Department of Agronomy, 2004 Throckmorton Plant
Science Center, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506; 3Phone: (785) 532-7239,
3
E-mail: kulakow@ksu.edu; 4Great Plains/Rocky Mountain HSRC, 101 Ward Hall, Kansas
State University, Manhattan, KS 66506; 4Phone: (785) 532-0780, 4E-mail:
baleven@ksu.edu.
The measurement of soil water content is one of the most common kinds of soil analysis
performed. The potential effects of the soil water content on the behavior of soil make it an
important measurement in every type of soil study. The relationship between soil water content
and metric suction is known as the soil-water characteristic curve. The soil-water characteristic
curve is often used for calculating unsaturated hydraulic values. The introduction of petroleum
hydrocarbons into an unsaturated soil, due to a spill, alters unsaturated hydraulic properties of
the soil, but current computer modeling of flow in unsaturated soil does not account for this
change in unsaturated hydraulic properties. This presentation will present results from a
laboratory experiment measuring the hydraulic properties of contaminated soils.
Key words: phytoremediation, petroleum hydrocarbons, contaminated soil, vegetation